Serotonin – Your Happiness

Serotonin, a neurotransmitter present in the brain and the lining of the digestive tract, controls the different switches affecting various emotional states (ref: Society for Neuroscience).

Your happiness and well-being are important, both as factors protecting against mental and physical disorders and in their own right. As you know negative moods are associated with negative outcomes. So you could start with working it back: do you want a negative outcome? If the answer to that is no, then you need to start changing the way you think.

Negative mood hostility is a risk factor for many disorders or diseases. Conversely, health is a state of completephysical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Nonpharmacologic methods of raising brain serotonin may not only improve mood and social functioning of healthy people, but would also make it possible to test the idea that increases in brain serotonin may help protect against the onset of various mental and physical disorders.

Positive thinking (for one) raises serotonin and dopamine levels, which in turn improve mood and social functioning of healthy people (ref: National Center for Biotechnology Information).

Want to be happier? Here’s how happy people do it. They:
1. Alter their negative thought patterns to positive ones, either self-induced or due to psychotherapy

2. Forgive easily

3. Exposure themselves to bright light

4. Exercise regularly

5. Eat right

6. Dream BIG and achieve those BIG dreams

7. DON’T compare themselves to others

Here’s to you increasing your serotonin levels and having a happy productive life!